Edward Stirling

Edward Stirling (c. 1808 – 2 February 1873) was an early settler of South Australia. He established several pastoral properties and was a co-founder of what became Elders Limited, also serving two terms in the South Australian Legislative Council. Stirling was born in Jamaica, the illegitimate child of a Scottish planter and a Jamaican woman of colour; his mixed-race ancestry was not public knowledge. He was raised in Scotland and immigrated to South Australia in 1839, financed by his father's slave compensation. Stirling established a sheep run near Strathalbyn with his cousin, later added several other properties. He later moved to Adelaide and entered into a partnership with Thomas Elder and Robert Barr Smith, which became Elders Limited. He was a member of the Legislative Council from 1855 to 1865 and served on the board of the South Australian Banking Company, later representing the bank in London where he died. His sons Edward Charles and John Lancelot Stirling were also members of parliament. Early life Stirling was born in Jamaica in about 1808. He was the illegitimate son of Archibald Stirling, a member of the Stirling slaveholding family of Keir House in Perthshire, Scotland. The family had acquired Jamaican property in 1733. Archibald lived in Jamaica for 25 years, primarily on his Hampden plantation in Saint James Parish, and fathered at least six illegitimate children with women of colour, who may have been slaves or free people of colour. The identity of Stirling's mother is uncertain, but he was visibly of African descent. After moving to South Australia he identified solely as Scottish, but his mixed-race origin was passed down through oral history accounts which suggest his mother was a Creole woman named Jeanne or Jeannie. Genealogical testing of Stirling's descendants in the 21st century indicates that his mother was the daughter of a woman from present-day Ghana. In 1815, Stirling's father returned to Scotland and married Elizabeth Maxwell, the daughter of Sir John Maxwell, 7th Baronet. Their son Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, 9th Baronet, was a member of parliament in the United Kingdom. Being of mixed race, Stirling and his siblings were barred from admission to the best schools in Jamaica and had few employment prospects. When he was about eight years old, he was sent to Scotland to be educated, along with a brother and two male cousins. He attended the parochial school at St Vigeans, living with the schoolmaster John Bowman.